The food crisis of 2008 showed a need “to be vigilant
about the way we allow markets to function, but also how we
frame them,” Le Foll said at a grain-industry meeting in Paris
today. “We have to be more strict on the framework.”

Le Foll said while there is “always a need” for
agricultural futures markets, they should function primarily to
provide price-risk coverage for producers and users. A framework
is needed to avoid “a blow up of the equilibrium between
physical and futures markets,” he said.

World food prices as tracked by the United Nations’ Food &
Agriculture Organization have more than doubled in the past
decade. The U.S. State Department estimates surging food prices
triggered more than 60 riots worldwide from 2007 to 2009.